Synopses & Reviews
The German Occupation of France put an end to Maurice Blanchot's career as a political journalist. In April 1941 he began to publish a weekly column of literary criticism in the Journal des Débats, which became the source for his first critical work, Faux pas (1943). As well as providing a unique perspective on cultural life during the Occupation, these pieces offer crucial insights into the mind and art of a writer who was to become one of the most influential figures on the French literary scene in the second half of the twentieth century.
As well as laying the basis for the career of one France's most original writers and thinkers, these articles also offer a reminder that Blanchot's political awareness remains undimmed, through clear if sometimes coded acts of criticism or defiance of the prevailing order.
Review
". . .an extraordinarily diverse and colourful series of critical essays, in which works of lasting quality and significance sit alongside others which have been justifiably forgotten, and where friendship and loyalty toward those who share Blanchot's ideals play a decisive role in shaping his attention and his choices. Though given piquancy by the sometimes haughty verve always present in them to some degree, the articles also celebrate in sometimes ecstatic tones the pure joy and consolation that literature can bring."-Michael Holland, from the Introduction
About the Author
Maurice Blanchot (1907-2003), writer, critic, and journalist, was one of the most important voices in twentieth-century literature and thought.
Michael Holland is a Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford where he teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature. He is the author of the Blanchot Reader and of numerous studies of Blanchot's work in both English and French.